Individual moral otherness as a means to underscore sectoral otherness

Abstract

Abstract This study examines the news broadcasts of the Israeli TV Channel 2. It focuses on coverage of instances in which Haredi ‘Jewish ultra-Orthodox’ individuals are accused of committing immoral acts such as child abuse, hit and run accident and rape. I argue that in all of these instances, the moral otherness of these individuals is linked to their Haredi identity, thus intensifying the negative-sectoral otherness of the entire Haredi community. I discuss tagging, visual devices and especially discursive strategies used to link individual moral otherness to sectoral otherness at various levels of directness. Additionally, I analyze online comments written by viewers of the items discussed, which indicate the identification and interpretation of implications and implicatures conveyed by this rhetorical linkage.